So what's wrong with the article?
There are zero pen-raised birds for at-least 75 miles from my spot. And few ranchers charge for pheasant hunting. They tell you to beat it, or tell you that you can hunt. But never ask for money, so I know they aren't buying birds for the coyotes to eat.
As for the joker interviewed in the article, Mr Haines, sounds like entitlement mentality to me.
"The fact that the state provides the birds is more of a hoax than it is a reality. Public shooting areas don't have any birds. It's that simple," Haines said.
Who said this is a fact? Him? If he did, it's his hoax. The State of SD does not buy birds, nor should they. If he is over-using his resource, the solution to that is simple, and not the States issue.
I get birds on public land in December, lots of them, so his statement about "the first two or three trips" is pure BS. I have seen a lot of birds migrate to public land when a big hunting party starts banging on the private side, so it works both ways.
The 40,000 trees he planted, Who do you all think bought them? I bet I know.
But this is the biggest whopper he tells: "They're not shooting the state's bird. They're shooting the farmer's bird. The bird grew up on the farmer's land and we farmed for them," Haines said.
We decided a long time ago who owns the wildlife in our Country, it is the people, not the landowner, this is not the "Sport of Kings" and he doesn't own shit. If he decides to do the right thing for his property, and the result of that is wildlife habitat, I thank him for it, but he doesn't own the wildlife that takes advantage of it. If this were the case, would you be arrested for shooting a pheasant that happened to cross his property line onto public? And who owns the bird then?
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